David Alexander, a professor of physics and astronomy and director of the Rice Space Institute, has been elected to the board of directors of the American Astronautical Society. The society, founded in 1954, is dedicated to advancing space activities.

Tom Kolditz, director of Rice’s Doerr Institute for New Leaders, was named a world-renowned business educator and coach on Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches. Kolditz was selected from among 16,0000 applicants to participate in the 100 Coaches program, which Goldsmith, an author and American leadership coach, established as a “pay-it-forward” project. It is aimed at teaching the coaches everything Goldsmith knows, for free, with the expectation that in the future they will all have the mandate to pay it forward to others.